Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen factors make no impact
Pune: The winning Maha Yuti-BJP candidate Murlidhar Mohol got lead from the Kothrud, Parvati, Vadgaon Sheri, Kasba Peth and Shivajinagar Assembly constituencies. His nearest rival MVA-Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar was leading only from the Cantonment segment in the Lok Sabha election results on Tuesday. Mohol got decisive leads in Kothrud and Vadgaon Sheri suburbs. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) factors had no impact at all.
Besides Mohol and Dhangekar, VBA’s Vasant More, MIM’s Anis Sundke and 35 other candidates were in the fray in the Pune Lok Sabha elections. However, the actual contest was between Mohol and Dhangekar. The BJP has its MLAs in Kothrud, Shivajinagar, Pune Cantonment and Parvati segments. MLA Sunil Tingre from Vadgaon Sheri belongs to the NCP (AP).
Dhangekar is the sitting MLA from Kasba Peth, where he created history by defeating the BJP in the bypoll. Thus, his party thought that he could recreate history in the Lok Sabha polls also. Initially, Dhangekar was gaining lead; however, bickering in his own party hit him very badly. The Congress had brought 10 MLAs from Vidarbha in the last leg of the campaign to curb infighting in the city unit of the party. But that did not work. Shiv Sena (UBT) workers worked hard for the MVA candidate. The BJP fielded a Maratha face in the backdrop of the Maratha quota stir. However, the Congress chose an OBC candidate in the form of Dhangekar. The BJP played the caste card and won.
Winning margin reduced
BJP’s Girish Bapat had won with a margin of over 3.25 lakh votes in the last election. Mohol defeated Dhangekar with a margin of over 1.23 lakh votes. Thus, the winning margin has been reduced. The BJP should introspect on the reduced margin.
Kasba Peth voters ditched Dhangekar
Ravindra Dhangekar had won the Kasba Peth assembly bypoll with a margin of 12,000 votes. But the segment gave lead to Mohol in the Lok Sabha poll. This was made possible by BJP’s Hemant Rasne and Young Entrepreneur Punit Balan. Punit Balan conducted a campaign through Ganesh mandals for Murlidhar Mohol, which benefited the candidate in the election.
VBA, MIM factor did not work
VBA candidate Vasant More received 31,973 votes. The VBA candidate in the last LS polls, Anil Jadhav, got 64,734 votes. MIM’s Sundke polled only 858 votes.
